Accountable Care

Big data tools and techniques are enabling providers to glean information from more and more sources. The challenge is analyzing it all and understanding how to put it to work improving processes and care.

Hospitals participating in Independence Blue Cross' accountable care contracts are reducing costs, improving care and earning incentives, according to the Philadelphia-based insurer.

There are many dimensions to the Accountable Care Organization challenge, including the logistics of changing a well-established acute care model, the process of configuring the network, analyzing IT capabilities across the spectrum and determining how all those moving parts will work together.

If the U.S. is going to get a handle on healthcare spending, providers and healthcare organizations are going to have to get serious about accountable care organizations, says one expert.

Like most CIOs of three-hospital health systems, Karen Bowling has plenty keeping her busy these days. Now there's even more to do. With the mission of meeting a slew of federal mandates pretty much well in hand, it's time to help steer toward a future of accountable care.

With two hospitals, 800 physicians and more vendors than you can count on two hands and two feet, Hartford, Conn.-based St. Francis Care has a tall order when it comes to data sharing and care coordination.

Children's Medical Center in Dallas will provide live Twitter updates from its operating room Monday, while 3-year-old John Gilbreath receives a kidney transplant from his father.

HIMSS09 wraps up today here in Chicago with keynote speeches from Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Naval Flight Surgeon Captain Jerry Linenger.

Attendees refilled Chicago's McCormick Place Monday morning for day two of the HIMSS09 Annual Conference and Exhibition.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's 2009 Annual Conference and Exhibition opened Sunday morning here in Chicago.